With a three-set victory in the first round on Saturday afternoon at the Biszantz Tennis Center in Claremont, California, the Case Western Reserve University women's tennis duo of senior Lily McCloskey and junior Katalina Wang advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2025 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Doubles Championship.
After dropping the first set 3-6, McCloskey and Wang rallied for a 6-3 win in the second set over Kylie Schaefer and Raine Weis from Christopher Newport. The Spartan duo then won the decisive third stanza 6-1 to claim the match and reach the quarterfinals. McCloskey and Wang, who improved to 18-5 on the season as a partnership, will face fourth-seeded Marissa Markey and Angie Zhou from Pomona-Pitzer on Sunday at 5 p.m. ET.
The CWRU pairing entered the postseason ranked 24th nationally by the ITA, while the Captain partnership, which was ranked 17th in Division III, ended the campaign with a record of 15-5.
McCloskey raised her doubles record to 22-5 and increased her career record to 85-23, the most in program history. Wang won her 20th doubles match of the season (20-6) and the 50th of her career (50-23).
Earlier in the day, McCloskey competed in the first round of the 32-player singles tournament falling to Lane Durkin of Wesleyan (CT) 2-6, 1-6. Durkin improved to 24-1 on the season, winning her 22nd consecutive match. McCloskey ended the year with a singles record of 15-9 and her career with a mark of 56-31. Her 56 wins are the fourth most in program history.
Wang was making her first-ever appearance at the national championship. McCloskey has competed in the doubles championship during each of her four seasons at CWRU and was making her singles championship debut.
Fans can follow all the action with live scoring and video at http://webapps3.cmc.edu/livescore/. The NCAA will also provide whip around live coverage of the matches at https://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule.
Spartan Notes
- With the win, both Wang and McCloskey earned All-America honors. It is the first career honor for the junior and fourth career honor for the senior, who has received national accolades for her doubles play in each of the past four seasons
- The 2025 championship is the 10th consecutive with CWRU competing in the singles tournament and fourth consecutive with a Spartan pairing in the doubles tournament
- The run to the quarterfinals matches the furthest for any pair in program history, accomplished by McCloskey and Hannah Kassaie in 2022 and Nithya Kanagasegar and Madeline Paolucci in 2018
- McCloskey has won a combined 141 matches in her career at CWRU, going 141-54 in her four years as a Spartan in singles and doubles play. The 141 wins are eight more than the previous record of 133 set by Surya Khadilkar from 2012-16
